A Prince George's County, Md., firefighter dressed in a protective suit walks out of a government mail screening facility in Hyattsville, Md., on Wednesday. / Alex Brandon, AP

by Larry Copeland and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

by Larry Copeland and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Paul Kevin Curtis, the Mississippi man accused of mailing letters containing the poison ricin to President Obama and others, is an Elvis impersonator and aspiring novelist who allegedly believes he became the target of a wide-ranging government conspiracy after stumbling onto a plot to sell body parts.

According to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI, Curtis, 45, of Corinth, Miss., is charged with knowingly using the mail to threaten the life of the president and to threaten to injure others. He is being held in the Lafayette County jail in Oxford.

Christi McCoy, Curtis' attorney, said after his Thursday court appearance that he was surprised by his arrest. McCoy said she has known his family for years and that Curtis "maintains 100% that he did not do this." Curtis did not enter a plea on the charges, and a detention hearing was scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday.

Curtis, arrested Wednesday at his home in a public housing development in Corinth, was "extremely delusional, anti-government" and believed the government was using drones to spy on him, his ex-wife, Laura Curtis, told Booneville, Miss., police in 2007, according to an affidavit by the FBI and the Secret Service.

"He is bipolar, and the only thing I can say is he wasn't on his medicine," Laura Curtis told the Associated Press this week.

The FBI Thursday confirmed the presence of ricin in the letters to Obama and Wicker and said further forensic tests were being done. The affidavit says Curtis mailed the letters from April 8 until Wednesday. "To date, the FBI is not aware of any illness as a result of exposure to these letters," the agency said.

Postings on various websites authored under the name Kevin Curtis say he sought to "expose various parties within the government, FBI, police departments" for "a conspiracy to ruin my reputation in the community as well as an ongoing effort to break down the foundation I worked more than 20 years to build in the country music scene."

He posted that he had sent letters to Wicker and politicians: "I never heard a word from anyone. I even ran into Roger Wicker several different times while performing at special banquets and fundraisers in northeast Mississippi, but he seemed very nervous while speaking with me and would make a fast exit to the door when I engaged in conversation."

Wicker said Thursday he had met Curtis: about a decade ago when he hired him to perform at a party he and his wife gave for a young couple about to get married. "He's an entertainer. He's an Elvis impersonator," Wicker said. He added: "It's my understanding that since that time he's had mental issues, and may not be as stable as he had been."

Ricky Curtis, who said he was Kevin Curtis' cousin, described his cousin as a "super entertainer" who impersonated Elvis Presley and other singers. "We're all in shock," he said. "I don't think anybody had a clue that this kind of stuff was weighing on his mind."

In a lawsuit Curtis filed against North Mississippi Medical Center, he said he got thirsty while working one night in the hospital's morgue and opened a small refrigerator to look for water.

"What I discovered changed my life forever! There were dismembered body parts and organs wrapped in plastic. A leg, an arm, a hand, a foot, hearts, lungs, tissue, eyes and even a severed human head!" He said he rushed out of the morgue and told a doctor what he'd seen "and asked him what they did with so many body parts."

"He looked very strange & did not answer me. Instead, wrote something down on a piece of paper. I suddenly became a prime 'person of interest' where my every move was watched and videotaped."